STR 
wing, or what appears as such, is destitute 
of feathers, and has five bare shafts like 
those of a porcupine, and the body is co- 
vered with loose webbed feathers of a 
rusty black colour. It is never found be- 
yond the tropical limiti, and is no where 
abundant within them. It is unable to fly, 
but runs with great speed, and though it 
lives only on vegetables and fruits, which it 
is said to swallow unbroken ; it is coura- 
geous, and even sometimes ferocious, and 
employs its legs to annoy its adversary by 
kicking. 
C. Nova Hollandia, or the N’ew Holland 
cassow'ary, is very similar to the above, but 
considerably longer. 
C. rhea, or the American ostrich, is 
stated to Ijave been seen by various tra- 
vellers, but no specimen appears to have 
been received in this country. It is said to 
be most numerous in the valleys of the 
Andes. It subsists partly on fruits, but 
refuses scarcely any thing that is thrown to 
it, however inconvenient and pernicious to 
it. Its favourite food consists of flies, in 
taking which it is peculiarly active and 
skilful. Each of its eggs is supposed to 
contain two pounds of fluid, and it lays be- 
tween fifty and sixty of these. It calls its 
young ones by a sound extremely re- 
sembling the whistle of a human being, and 
defends itself by kicking. Its feathers are 
in high estimation among the Indians for the 
ejnbellishraent of their persons, and are 
used in forming ornamental coverings for 
«hade. 
STRUTHIOLA, in botany, a genus of 
the Tetrandria Monogynia class and order. 
Natural order of Veprecuculaj. Thymelaese, 
Jussieu. Essential character : corolla none ; 
calyx tubular, with eight glands at the 
mouth ; berry juiceless, one-seeded. There 
are five species, all natives of the southern 
promontory of Africa. 
STRYCHNOS, in botany, a genus of the 
Pentandria Monogynia class and order. 
Natural order of Lurid®. Apocine®, Jus- 
sieu. Essential character : corolla five- 
parted ; berry one-celled, with a woody 
rind. There are three species, we shall 
notice the S. nux vomica, poison nut. It is 
a native of the East Indies, and is common 
in almost every part of the coast of Coro- 
mandel, flowering during the cold season. 
The wood is hard and durable, and is used 
for many purposes by , the natives. The 
root is used to cure intermitting fevers, and 
the bites of venomous snakes. The seed of 
the fruit is the ofiicinal nux vomica ; it is 
STU 
about an inch broad, and nearly a qTOrtef 
of an inch thick, covered with a kind of 
woolly matter; internally it is tough and 
hard, like horn ; to the taste extremely 
bitter, but having no remarkable smeH ; it 
consists chiefly of a gummy matter, the re- 
sinous part is very inconsiderable. Nux vo- 
mica is reckoned amongst the most power- 
ful poisons of the narcotic kind ; it proves 
fatal to dogs in a very short time. Loureiro 
relates that a horse died within a quarter of 
an hour after taking an infusion in wine of 
the seeds in an half ro.asted state. 
STUARTIA, in botany, a genus of the 
Monadelphia Polyandria class and order. 
Natural order of Columnifer®. Tiliace®, 
Jussieu. Essential character : calyx sim- 
ple ; style simple, with a five-cleft stigma ; 
pome juiceless, five-lobed, one-seeded, open- 
ing five ways. There are two species, uiz. 
S. malacodendron, and S. pentagyna, both 
natives of Virginia. 
STUDDING sails, are those which are 
extended in moderate and steady breezes 
beyond the skirts of the principal sails, 
where they appear as wings to the yard- 
arms. 
STURNUS, the stare, or starling, in na- 
tural history, a genus of birds of the or- 
der Passeres. Generic character : the bill 
strait and depressed; nostrils surrounded 
and protected by a prominent rim ; tongue 
hard and cloven ; middle toe joined to the 
outermost, as far as the first joint. There 
are seventeen species, of which we shall no- 
tice the following. 
S. vulgaris, the common starling, weighs 
about three ounces, and is well known near- 
ly throughout the old world. It builds in 
rocks, houses, and the hollows of the trunks 
of trees ; but rarely on the branches, unless 
when availing itself of the deserted nest of 
some other bird. In winter, starlings are 
seen in immense multitudes, in company 
with several other British birds, especially 
fieldfares and red-wings, and their flight is 
particularly marked by whirling, and nearly 
circular, movements, which, while they ex- 
tremely delay their actual progress, do not 
absolutely prevent it. They assemble in the 
mornings to make their excursions for food, 
which consists of worms and insects, re- 
turning to their stations in the evening, and, 
at both seasons, exhibiting extraordinary 
tumult and clamour. In confinement, they 
eat with avidity pieces of raw meat, and, 
in a state of nature, they are supposed to 
proper animal food to vegetable, recurring 
to the last only when the former is. not 
